States of Uncertainty
Installation Exhibition, Rendelsham, Old Jet 2022
Photographs created with Nick Illot
‘A State of Uncertainty’ installation recreates the essence of a Soviet family apartment at the cusp of Soviet-Era collapse. Nostalgic B&W and Colour-Film portraits shot by Nick Ilott and directed by Vasilisa tell the story of a family across the later years of the Soviet Union, inspired by memories of Vasilisa’s childhood and her parent’s childhood.
The exhibition is dedicated to my mother, who was brought up in the Soviet Union amidst circumstances of turmoil and trauma both domestically within her household and on a grand political scale. Her experience is an intense narrative of growing up in 1970s Soviet Russia amidst a rigid set of social conditioning, whilst being raised within a violently patriarchal household before fleeing an uncertain and chaotic Russia of the 90s. Within this first iteration of the series, I could only start at paying homage to the stories I’d heard from her, and the photographs I’d seen and remember seeing as a child. Each recreated photograph is a story of a moment in history, of her experience, and her mother’s (my grandmother’s) experience, and each has a backstory that holds both my own nostalgia, and the ghost of a lived history.
Stylised to resemble moments from the 70s, 80s and 90s, the framed photographs mimic a short period of time in the family’s life; motherhood, school years, prom, and a potential gaze into the future - the hope of travel and escape as the narrative approaches 1991. The details of the room echo Vasilisa’s grandmother’s house, where framed school portraits hung against damask wallpaper, an ingrained memory of archetypal Soviet aspiration and design. Authentic soviet details can be found in the photographs such as the white Pioneer’s cap, and the famous 1960s character toy Cheburashka - a highly sought after and popular children’s toy both in that period and as a symbol of soviet-era nostalgia today. The photographs also give an uncanny sensation as they were shot within rural Suffolk, thus creating a strange connection between the two worlds. The parallels between the landscape of Suffolk and Russia are apparent within the local nature, such as birch and pine trees, and the Soviet industrial landscape of concrete architecture as seen within the base and surrounding localities.
